Philadelphia 76ers: Christmas is going to be awkward for Doc and Austin Rivers
Doc Rivers’ decision to bypass a Philadelphia 76ers free agent target may make for an awkward Christmas.
If there was one player the Philadelphia 76ers were linked to more than any other during the offseason, it was Austin Rivers.
Sure, some may instead point to players like James Harden, Bradley Beal, or the top player on many a fan’s wishlist, Buddy Hield, but if we’re being honest, none of those deals were ever going to happen. Save for maybe a move to acquire a player like Chris Paul or flipping Al Horford for another over-the-hill vet like Nicolas Batum or Harrison Barnes, the Sixers’ offseason was always going to be one of marginal improvements the second Daryl Morey entered the fray.
No, we’re talking about everyone’s favorite mid-level exception target, Austin Rivers.
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Now on paper, Rivers looked like a pretty seamless fit on the Sixers’ offense regardless of how the offseason turned out. Measuring in at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, Rivers is a versatile combo guard cable of playing seamlessly off of Ben Simmons in the starting five or as a lead guard coming off the bench. Though he’s far from a 3 point assassin a la the player the Sixers ultimately did acquire to fill their vacant two guard spot, Seth Curry, Rivers’ ability to do everything pretty well was about as good a get as anything the Sixers could ask for $5.7 million or less per year.
When your salary cap is in the toilet, there are only so many options to improve upon a deeply flawed roster.
But, in a twist of fate, both unexpected and all too predictable, the Sixers opted against signing anyone to their mid-level exception and almost exclusively rebuilt their roster via trade and one-year, veteran minimum signings. Was this intentional? We may never know. I highly doubt anyone thought we’d see a roster featuring Curry, Danny Green, and Tony Bradley even a week before the 2020 NBA Draft, so it’s entirely possible the team’s free agency plans were subverted by a robust trade market and the availability of Dwight Howard.
However, we do know one thing: Doc Rivers was not into the idea of signing his son.
That’s right, according to the man himself via the New York Post, the Sixers were, in fact, high on signing Austin for much of the offseason, and intended to pursue him once free agency opened up, but Doc turned it down – suggesting that, “When I took the job, I said, ‘You don’t want that. You got too many other things we have to deal with.’”
Ouch, insert Will Smith crying “How come he don’t want me, man” here.
To make matters worse, it’s not like the Sixers wanted to avoid adding Doc’s family members to their roster this season either, as Seth Curry is literally married to Callie Rivers, making him Austin’s brother-in-law.
*Yikes* Christmas is going to be awkward in the Rivers household this year.
While this certainly isn’t the end of the Doc-Austin Rivers saga, as the Sixers and New York Knicks will play a number of times this season, and the two parties could still execute a reunion via trade if things get predictably ugly in Madison Square Garden, but for now, the deal is done. Outside of adding Damion Lee, who is married to Sydel Curry, it would appear the Rivers’ faction of the Sixers roster will remain exclusively Seth Curry, at least for the time being.
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On paper, Austin Rivers made sense with pretty much any direction the Philadelphia 76ers could have gone this offseason. He’d played for both Doc Rivers and Mike D’Antoni, had a great relationship with Tyron Lue from his time as an assistant with the Celtics and Clippers, and was signed to multiple contracts by Daryl Morey. But after creating some serious friction during his first tenure under Doc in Los Angeles, the decision to bypass Austin Rivers as the Sixers attempt an on-the-fly soft-reboot is honestly a smart one considering the other moves made this offseason – even if it creates some serious issues for Doc around the kitchen table this holiday season.